Shake on it: Gazprom's Alexei Miller, right, welcomes Gerhard Schroeder on board today
Schroeder slams pipeline job critics
Germany's former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder denied cashing in on his connections as he started a lucrative job today as head of a Russian-led North European Gas Pipeline (NEGP) project.
Schroeder was elected to the €250,000 ($300,000) per annum post of chairman of the shareholders' committee of NEGP at the panel's first meeting in Moscow.
Critics say the Social Democrat acted with unseemly haste in accepting the job overseeing the $5 billion pipeline project, whose construction was sealed weeks before his election defeat last September.
"I cannot understand this criticism," Schroeder told a news conference at the headquarters of Russia's state-controlled gas monopoly Gazprom.
Gazprom has a 51% stake in the planned gas line which would pump Siberian gas under the Baltic Sea to Germany. Germany's E.ON and BASF hold 24.5% each in the development.
"This is a project of three independent companies, and is in Germany's interest. Any German government would support it," he said. "The decisions taken were commercial decisions, and at no time did I have any inside knowledge."
Opponents accuse Schroeder, 61, of exploiting his friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin for gain, compromising Germany's interests and alienating neighbouring Poland - a transit route for Russian gas which the new line would bypass.
Schroeder's most vocal German critic, Guido Westerwelle, slammed Schroeder's appointment as a "styleless, unsavoury, questionable switching of sides".
"Rarely has a chancellor after leaving office damaged his own image and the image of politics so quickly," Westerwelle, who leads the opposition Free Democrats, told Reuters. Schroeder has sought a court order to stop Westerwelle's attacks.
Schroeder responded that the gas line would be vital to secure stable energy supplies to Germany and Europe at a time of rising demand, and would not affect other export routes.
Russia already provides a quarter of Europe's gas and its reputation as a supplier suffered a jolt when it cut deliveries to Ukraine at the New Year in a pricing dispute, in turn hitting deliveries to customers such as Italy and Hungary.
Some consuming nations are stepping up the search for other supply sources. But the Baltic pipeline's backers say it has the benefit of sidestepping potentially awkward transit countries.
"The whole thing is, geopolitically, an enormously important project for the future of Europe," said Eggert Voscherau, deputy chairman of BASF.
Work on the project began in December, and a first pipeline link from Vyborg on Russia's Baltic Sea coast to Greifswald in Germany is expected to deliver 27.5 billion cubic metres of gas annually from 2010. A second pipeline is planned which would double capacity to 55 Bcm.
Gazprom boss Alexei Miller said no further partners would be sought for the consortium, dashing the hopes BP, Gasunie, Gaz de France and British pipeline company Transco had of joining.
"Today we have an understanding that the financial and shareholding structure is sufficient to implement the project," Miller told the same news conference.
A Gazprom source said all volumes for the first stage had already been sold to long-term customers. So far the only sale announced has been of 9 Bcm per year to Germany's Wingas.
The shareholders' committee named Matthias Warnig, head of Dresdner Bank's (Russian subsidiary, as chief executive of NEPG. Gazprom has four seats and EON and BASF have two each on the panel, which will meet again on 4 June.